Today

PJs
Soup
Hot Tea
Candle Light

We had to drive out to Coquitlam to drop off the car to get fixed. For some reason we took the highway. Most painful moment of my life. Right then and there I decided I am never moving to Surrey. If I had to do that every day I would explode.

The soup wasn’t as filling as I thought it was going to be. So hungry.

After tomorrow I should be able to think straight.

The closer it gets to Italy time, the more anxiety I feel.

I have been failing miserably in the last little while when it comes to work place anxiety. I can not tell you how many nights I have spent sleepless, mind racing, unable to think about anything else.

There is a lot of stuff I want to get done before I head out for a month. A lot of the stuff I have already finished up, but there are still things that lag behind, that I have not been able to attack quite yet, mostly because I am waiting on other people.

I know I put a lot of pressure on myself because I am always in a state of wanting to please everyone and never wanting to get in trouble. I swear I spend most of my days as a 5 year old kid looking for praise and hiding from punishment. I don’t really know why I’m like that.

I cripple under the fear of getting in trouble, even for the smallest thing.

I know I build things up in my head. I know I over dramatize almost every situation I’m in. I know everything turns out alright in the end, I just need to keep telling myself that.

Claudia warned be that the last month before going away on a big vacation like this is death. The pressure mounts for you to get the most amount of work humanly possible done so that it will be smooth sailing for everyone else in the office. I knew it was coming, and so far, I’ve handled it great. I want to get things done, I want to make it easy for everyone, but there is part of me that feels no matter how much I prepare, there will still be things that come up that I ‘should have done’. It’s hard to explain. I know there are people on my side, but I also know there are people ‘against me’. It’s those people that I am letting get to me.

This trip has been a struggle since the moment I started planning it.

I can’t control everything. I can’t be your security blanket forever.

There is going to be a meeting this week to make sure everything is set in place for when I leave. I am striving to make their minds explode with just how much I have done in preparation. Then, just maybe, everyone will be on my side.

I went to dinner with Yves Saint Laurent on Tuesday.

The hostest was somewhat rude. She made us move because we were apparently taking up too much space (a booth for 4 instead of 2).

She has bleach stains on the front of her dress and yellow stains on the back of her dress. Did you look in the mirror this morning?

My face is very rectangular.

Shaz

Legendary Noodle House. My favorite noodle house of all time.

My first Ice Cream Cone of the Summer. Sad but true. Just wait until I hit Italy. Ice Cream every day please!

I always go to the Noodle House on Denmen which is basically two feet from English Bay.

I really love English Bay.

Everything was very Yellow.

It’s so peacful being down here in the evening.

Saturday I spent the day huddled in my parents basement scrapbooking my honeymoon pictures. Ugh, don’t ask. Chad came over mid day to wash his car and we both stayed for din din on the patio. Since he has a date with boys in the evening, I decided to hang out with the rents and join them on a bike ride around Stanley park. The last time I did that was 4 years ago and Dario joined us. We saw hippies with really long armpit hair. Remember?

I have an old mountain bike that my parents bought me years ago second hand. I think I’ve had it since I was 14. A few years ago my Dad took it apart, cleaned and painted it and then put it back together. It still works and all, but the thought came to me that I should maybe try and sell and get one of those cute retro cruiser bikes. I know I don’t bike very often, but I hope to do more in the future, and I see myself cruising more then riding up mountains or through traffic. Biking is also one of the only sports Chad and I can do together that his knees can handle so I would really like to try and do more riding.

While discussing this plan with my Mom she offered up her old bike.

Even in Italy they can’t spell her name right!

As some of you know, my Mom was born in Italy and immigrated here with my Grandparents at the age of 5. When she graduated high school she went back to visit all her relatives and her Grandfather gave her a bike as a grad present. Well, lucky for her, the bike actually folds up and she was able to stick it in a suite case and bring it back home to Canada!

I remember this bike when I was a kid. It was something of a novelty that my Nonna kept in her garage and would sometimes use to ride along side us when we road our bikes in the back lane. Mom didn’t use it anymore so it was  kept purely for nostalgia.

I hadn’t seen it in years, so I really didn’t know what kind of state the bike was in, let alone if it was ride-able! Nonna had it all folded up in the closet. The wheels had lost air, there was rust in places, and power generated lights no longer worked. I took it home, Dad pumped up the tires, and I took it for a spin.

It was magic!

I would love to take it into a bike shop and get it all cleaned up. Get rid of the rust, paint it up, fix the lights. I’m just a bit apprehensive as I don’t really want to ruin the bike. I want to make it look exactly the same, just nicer, cleaner. I want to keep my Moms stickers, but I want them to look better. I also have no idea what a job like this would cost. A lot of the chrome is rusted, the lights need re-wiring, and the breaks need to be re-done too. Maybe I will investigate a company that could help me next summer, when I have more time and money to play with.

How cute would this look, all shiny and new, with some streamers and a basket?

OMG

The other night I woke up to a mosquito buzzing in my ear. I swatted it away but didn’t worry about it because I knew it would get Chad 100 times before it got me.

Not to long later I rolled over, half awake, towards Chad. He reached out and asked me if I was awake. I was, so he asked me if I heard a mosquito buzzing around. Well, it was driving him absolutely crazy and he had already been bitten 4 times. Haha, sucker! He then told me that he needed to kill it right away because he could not sleep with it buzzing around. His plan? To turn on all the lights and wait for the mosquito to fly towards them and then attack it.

It was 3:45 in the morning.

I was surprisingly in a good mood so I indulged him.

I attempted to cover my face from the light attack but there was no point. I knew I wasn’t going to sleep through this.

So, there he was, all covered up, staring at his bed side light waiting for the mosquito to come and attack. We waited, we watched, we saw it once, but didn’t get it in time.

30 minutes later, I told him that time was up, so he came up with a brilliant idea – that he should have originally just done – and decided to turn on the fan so to blow the bugger out of the way.

Well, it worked. The mosquito never came back, and I was punished with Ciavarro-esque gas attacks blown in my face by the fan.

Just a night in the life.

If you only do one thing today, it should be watching these videos…